When you think of “sugar”, you most likely think of table sugar, which comes in white crystals. But you might be surprised to know that this is just one variety of sugar called sucrose. There are six other types of sugars which are also relatively abundant. All sugars are carbohyrates. A simple sugar is a monosaccharide. Fructose is one of them. Fructose the the sweetener of all fruits, and is known as fruit sugar. It is also found in honey. Next is a very popular sugar, known as glucose. Glucose is a simple sugar that plants can consume. Glucose is special because it is the simplest carbohydrate. After glucose is galactose. Galactose is just about as sweet as glucose, and both of them together form our next sugar, lactose. Lactose is different from all the previous sugars because it is a complex sugar, a disaccharide. Now that we are on the topic of complex sugars, we should circle back to the original sugar mentioned, which is sucrose. Sucrose is a combination of glucose and fructose. After that is maltose, which is when there are two glucose units that are linked. Finally, we have xylose which exists outside of this family tree. Funnily enough, xylose is the sugar found in wood and bark. These sugars have different nutritional benefits and are formed differently. Stay healthy!